Good morning(at least I hope it’s still morning by the time I finish typing this)! Don’t forget that I pick a yogurt contest giveaway winner randomly tonight!

Uli Mana Raw Desserts

Uli Mana Raw Truffles

Last night was “one of those nights” where I just needed something really good for dessert. I pulled out my little treasure trove from Uli Mana and picked out 2 of their truffles to try out. These are made with cacao powder, cacao butter, agave, and a few other ingredients. The first thing that surprised me was how rich and decadent these were; the inside was like super soft and melty chocolate–delicious! I think my favorite was the Goji Cherry Raw Truffles…

Goji Cherry Raw Truffle

So so good. I would have thought the nibs would add an unpleasant bitterness but they actually worked super well here; I could easily eat a container of these in one sitting. They were just that good. Also good but not quite as much so were the Dark Cacao Raw Truffles. Don’t get me wrong–I loved these as well. But the flavor was a little 1-dimensional whereas the other truffle had so much going on to make it exciting. Either way was a winner, though. All these superfoods had me excited to try something else exotic.

Coconut flour oats! Can you say yum? The Bob’s Red Mill product actually made this more of a batter than oats, but it was still super nice; I think it needed either more sweetness or saltiness to really be “interesting”. On top I made a new butter using Xagave and Tropical Tradition’s coconut oil along with other flavors. Holy yum! This was jsut as I expected cacao bliss to be. It’s not perfect, but I can’t wait to play around and make a big batch once it is! And then some hulled hemp seeds and Navitas Naturals‘ goji berries made this feel like a real superfood treat. I was still craving a little chocolate, though, so I had to have a little more.

1/2 Raw Vegan Chocolate Bar

Even though it was just 1/2, the sugar did not help me sleep soon or well; I ended up waking up around 2am but feeling absolutely paralized from a bad dream. I’m honestly surprised(and happy) I didn’t jolt up screaming and punching only to wake everybody else up. Somehow, I still managed to get out of bed at 6:15 to hit the gym.

Running Stats

I would not say getting up at 6:15 to run is ideal. BUT it is only 2 days a week I have to do it, and for that I can definitely deal. I was debating running 5 miles and doing a 30 minute bike or just running 7. To save my legs for 8 miles tomorrow, I went with the former.

My Gym

The gym was completely empty; that I was not expecting. At least I got my choice of a few televisions(and chose The Today Show and Cartoon Network, as always). I have to say that I do not like the bike and this might have been “my last ride”. I just find it uncomfortable and it’s hard to keep my HR over 100. Elliptical? More running? I’ll find something to entertain me. For breakfast, I turned back to my new friend…

Oatmeal With Chocolate Peanut Butter

Pomegranate Yogurt With Coconut Flour

More coconut flour! It’s becoming an addiction; this time I added 2 tablespoons to greek yogurt and the result was fantastic. For flavor, it came out a mellow but present coconuttiness. In terms of texture, this made it super thick and almost like soft serve that wouldn’t melt(that much coconut flour has 6g of fiber!). It may look like there’s not much chocolate peanut butter there, but that’s because I stuck it back in the microwave for the oatmeal to surround the giant clump o’ nut butter; that way, when I got to Greek and opened up my oatmeal, the inside was still perfectly soft and melty.

On my way back from class, I ordered the last book I need for classes–$51 out of pocket! It’s not even noon and today’s already expensive… Anyway, I’ve now sampled all the products sent to me by Navitas Naturals and so am recapping my reviews for them! As always, any of these can be found under the Product Reviews page at anytime. My general impression was that a lot of care was put into all the products I’ve sampled and that really shined through. I don’t know that the items themselves were my favorite, par say, but I definitely look forward to exploring the company more and seeing what else they have to offer.

Sweet Cacao Nibs

8.5/10: Cacao nibs are as close to the rainforest as you can eat when it comes to chocolate. So pure and raw, these were an excellent treat. “Sweet”, however, was a big overstatement. These might have been sweetened with sugar, but make no mistake in that they were still quite bitter like raw cacao nibs. No matter which was you spin it, the flavor was far too bitter to be called sweet. I liked the big clumps which were almost more like granola and the tiny individual nibs for a good variety over yogurt and oatmeal. If 100% raw cacao nibs aren’t your thing, this just might be a nice stepping stone.

Goji Berries

9/10: Why don’t you see goji berries more around America? Because the real deal come only from the Himilayas. And that’s what these are: The real deal. Navitas Naturals brings the Himilayan superfruit to your pantry. Of course, the real question when it comes to dried fruit is whether they’ll be soft and not stale. These, honestly, felt a bit on the cusp, but I’m hoping it was just my mouth fooling me and I’ll get used to the true texture.

Mulberries

9/10: I can’t say I was in love with these berries, but I can’t find much fault with Navitas, either. I’m really impressed that they can grow these organically in their native Turkey and deliver them to your home. The berries themselves read like a pill with their nutritional benefits, but it’s hard to know whether they’re any better than any other berries. Navitas claims to dry them to “the perfect” moisture content; I don’t know if perfect is the word, but at least they aren’t stale. If you’re dead set on getting mulberries, by all means get Navitas Naturals’. Just looking for something new and different to try? Look again.

22 Responses to “Where No Coconut Flour Has Gone Before”

Wow, I’m SO excited to learn about the coconut flour!! 6 grams of fiber in 2 tablespoons is incredible! Thank you for introducing me to a new ingredient! 🙂

I confess that I love the stationary bike… 🙂 Probably just because I love cycling outside so much when the weather is better, so at least on the stationary bike I can create imaginary hills and pretend… :-p *giggles* High five to you for getting up so early to run!! I can’t wait for my silly injury to heal so I can start running again!

Coconut flour!? That’s amazing, I’ve never heard of that before! Where did you buy it?
Arghgh I feel your pain re exspensive uni books – I bought 4 for my first year, half price – £120!! Ridiculous 😦
Do you eat anything before you run? I could never do 8miles on an empty stomach, I always have to have a piece of fruit or something :s

i don’t think anything gets my hr as up there as running. that said i think that xting shouldn’t be as taxing as running so maybe it’s good that your hr was lower during the bike? but i feel you: i hate the bike!

I would give the elliptical a shot. My hips and knees start to cry if I spend too much time on the treadmill/pounding the pavement, but developing a decent relationship with the elliptical has made my body MUCH happier!

oh man that chocolate looks yum
i just got done reading a book about the food industry. lets just say my view on food has radically changed. i refuse to eat ANYTHING produced in a factory farm. goodbye sweet sweet blissful ignorance. i always knew it was bad, but now i cannot overlook it! no more store bought animals for this gal, looks like i need to go buy me some chickens! haha

I drink a shot of freshly squeezed goji juice eveyr morning in Hong Kong, but I realized that the berries from Navitas naturals are dyed with red coloring. BAAAD!!!! 2 ways you can tell is to either 1) soak the berries in water for 10 minutes to see if red dye comes off, or 2) check the tips of your berries, if there is a white dot, then it isn’t dyed. Too red to be true = fake coloring!! Test yours out, mine came out dyed, but i got mine over 6 months ago!

Hi Evan, I just wanted to check out your blog because I’ve seen you posting on lots of ones I like 😀 . I’m usually in a rush during my morning blog read but I kept thinking I needed to stop by your blog- finally here I am! The yogurt + coconut flour looks so delicious like mousse!

About

By day, I attend an ivy New England university. At night, I love to cook and taste. And somewhere in between all of that, I fuel for my passion of distance running. I blog about health tips, recipes, and product reviews. Have any questions? Want your product to be featured on my site? Drop me an email at Evan@FoodMakesFunFuel.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.